Salesforce Agrees to Buy Cresta for Its AI Voice Agents, Its Third Acquisition Since October 20; The Information Reports a $2.7 Billion Price
Salesforce signed a definitive agreement on November 2 to acquire Cresta, whose AI voice agents handle customer calls for companies including Marriott, Comcast and Alaska Airlines, and plans to combine it with Service Cloud. Salesforce did not disclose a price; The Information reported $2.7 billion, citing a person familiar with the deal. The deal follows Salesforce's agreements to buy Braze and Rune Technologies and is expected to close in Salesforce's fiscal first quarter of 2028.
Salesforce is buying its way into live phone calls, the part of customer service it calls the hardest to get right. Salesforce said on November 2 that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Cresta, which calls itself "the voice-first operating system for customer experience." Salesforce did not disclose the price; The Information reported $2.7 billion, citing a person familiar with the deal, according to The Next Web, which said it had not verified the figure.
What Cresta does#
Cresta's voice agents handle complex customer calls end to end and work at enterprise scale for brands including Marriott, Comcast and Alaska Airlines, Salesforce said. The same platform guides human representatives during live calls, analyzes every interaction, and tests the voice agents. Salesforce plans to combine it with Service Cloud to link each conversation to the customer's history and outcome, and says Cresta will keep supporting the contact center and telephony platforms its customers already use.
"Voice is where service is hardest to get right, and where it matters most to customers," said Kishan Chetan, who runs Agentforce and Service Cloud.
A run of deals#
The deal follows Salesforce's agreement to buy Braze for about $5.66 billion on October 20 and its deal for defense logistics startup Rune Technologies days before Cresta. It is expected to close in the first quarter of Salesforce's fiscal year 2028, subject to regulatory approvals.
Limits#
- The $2.7 billion price is The Information's report from one unnamed source; neither company has confirmed it.
- Salesforce has not said how Cresta's products will be priced or packaged within Service Cloud.
- This was announced on November 2, before our previous edition's research window; we include it now because we missed it.